Ready for more?

Woo! We’re back from Newday!:)

You may say 'sad times.' And I do agree, because I do miss it a lot, and it is very weird that it has gone and went already: but I'm not too sad, really. I'm overwhelmingly happy for the amazing experience my week was, with incredible times meeting with God, making new friends and actually getting to know people who went to church but had never talked to :') However it is a strange feeling. Ever since I've been at Kings, Newday was always talked about with the highest praise; looked forward to with the greatest of anticipation. And now, finally, I can partake in
this!:) as it truly was an amazing week. God worked so so so much; and I think, for me, the outcome of the entire experience was a hench amount of awe for Him.

As a lot of you now know, haha, thanks to my overwhelming excitement, God worked specifically to a massive physical effect in me. Since roughly September 2009, I have suffered from a knee condition on both knees which was believed to be similar Chondromalacia patellae. After over a year and a half of visits to various physios, specialists, centres and so on; and treatments of acupuncture, therapy and epidurals; everyone had pretty much given up on me. I mean being the kind of person I am, I didn’t let it rule my life; however having been a keen triathlete and cross country champion, the inability to even run for 5 minutes on a treadmill without buckling and intense pain was heartbreaking. And if the use of a pull buoy to disable my legs for every swimming set wasn’t enough, over the summer tan lines grew around the knee strappings which I wore every day to minimize the pain!

But, anyway, I don’t think that, before Newday, I had thought a lot about God healing my knees. I guess I just accepted it as a disliked part of who I was. But I think it took the Freedom Course (run expertly by Anna and Amy, everybody go on it! It’s amazing) and the extra time with my Godly girls to maybe start to ask God to perform a miracle. A few times we prayed together before Newday; and when everyone arrived on the first Monday, Sally and I pledged to pray after every morning and evening meeting for my pins.

Well, anyway, this happened, and it took only 2 days for God to answer our prayers. On Tuesday night, after intense praying with my darling Sally and Anna too, I got up, did a few squats, .. ran up and down the aisle a bit .. ran to the toilets to remove my knee straps .. and, well, yeah, was very exciteful and grateful and so on. As you would be. But, enough of that, the final story is my knees were healed. My left knee is absolutely pain free, with just a little knock on from a weak ankle on my right: but I have absolutely 100000x less pain. It is crazy good. No more knee strappings for meee!:D Okay! I am back on the Newday subject now. Sorry Jez.(: so yes, there were some amazing meetings, too, and the worship was legendary. The band led my Simon Brading were amazing; the songs powerful and now the only annoyance is the wait before the CD is released in October! And also the fact that the guitarist looked like Michael from My Family:D So Steve Chong spoke 3 times in the morning, and well how could you not love this Chinese Australian. He thrilled us with his stories of his adorable sons, Reuben and Jacob, and humored everyone with his aussie ‘eskies’ and such. He spoke on how Jesus should be our everything, our ‘Bucket List’, on Jesus’ journey in the shape of a J (much like Sesame Street) and finally on Friday about bowing the knee to Jesus (I KNOW! I COULD DO THIS! XD) and going global with our ideas. Other morning preaches were lead my Stef Liston and Joel Virgo, and the evening meetings hosted powerful speakings from the likes of Stu Gibbs, Joel Virgo, Julian Adams and Adrian Holloway who led, like every year I heard, the incredible Thursday dedicated to healing and changing people’s lives around. On that night alone, 309 people were healed and an even more amazing 365 people gave their lives to the Lord!

So, it would be a mild understatement to say that God was there and working in these meetings. There were also daily seminars which were truly inspiring and thought provoking; things to tickle eveyone’s fancy with streams such as ‘How to answer tough questions’, ‘Jesus+’, ‘How to change the world’, ‘Redemption’ and Mobilise for the 18-30s.
There was also the ‘Just Looking’ seminars where questions could be asked, and in the afternoon talks for both sexes and also on dating and relationships.

Oh, gosh, there was outreach, too. That was one amazing experience of which I want more! Thorughout the week you could sign up to go into the local community in Norwich, and help out with a project. I went as part of Trev’s team on Wednesday, and we cleared a garden of a lovely old man in the glorious sunshine! It was hot and sticky and smelly, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and relished in the manual labour: and I’m sure that we spread the love of God to the community in our red t-shirts, too.(which we got to keep .. oh yeah.) In the time when we weren’t in senimars, sorry, seminars, :D I relished with my new knees in beautiful games of volleyball in the sports field. I made many a new friend, and even discovered old ones, singing whatever praise song was in my head and thanking God for the
(then) dry sunny weather!

Oh my, there is so much to talk about, the amazing food, shower queues, spanish graces, Newday Downpours .. but I better keep this blog short (:s) and sweet. To conclude, my first experience of Newday was truly amazing; and I felt my relationship with God grow stronger and stronger. I’ve come out of the week with, like I said, with my image of the Lord WIDENED 10000x, and I’m buzzing to be back in the world to spread the name of Jesus. Everyone I knew pretty much knew about my knees, so now they can all know about Jesus. That’s my plan, anyway. If you went to Newday 11, I hope that it was as refreshing an experience as I had, and that you’re just as excited to tell everyone the Good News as I am. And for next year? Already looking to go back.